The All-Star Game: So Very Wrong

Memo to Bud Selig: As you prepare for another joke of an All-Star game, let’s go back to the early days of major-league baseball in the Bay Area. Take a look at the 1961 game at Candlestick, an extra-inning affair, to show how it’s done:

After the American League pushed across a run in the top of the 10th, this is how the National League answered in the bottom half: Henry Aaron, pinch-hitting for the pitcher, led off with a single and, after a passed ball, scored on a double by Willie Mays. Frank Robinson was hit by a pitch, and Roberto Clemente followed with a game-winning single to right.

Notice anything unusual about that, Bud? Right, the game hadn’t turned into a parade of who-cares reserves. Mays and Clemente played the entire game for the National League, as did shortstop Maury Wills. There was nothing in particular at stake, nothing like the Selig-forced travesty of giving World Series home-field advantage to the winning team in the All-Star game. But the games were extremely meaningful in those days, a matter of pride, and the great ones tended to play to the finish.

Two of the most memorable homers in All-Star game history — game-winners by Ted Williams (1941) and Stan Musial (1955, 12th inning) were made possible because those great players were still in the lineup. In the very first game, 1933, the American League didn’t replace any of its starters. In 1937, the American League took care of business with just three pitchers and no substitutes in the field.

So there’s the irony: In the days when there was nothing at stake but integrity, the players, managers and league executives tried like hell to win. Now, with so much on the line (and really, Bud, this is your worst idea and one of the worst by any commissioner in any sport), it’s all about playing 68 guys and giving pitchers just one inning apiece.

When this was a real game, you had a pretty good chance of watching your heroes for nine or more innings. In 1954, Musial and Mickey Mantle each batted five times. In that 12-inning affair in ’55, Mantle and Red Schoendienst batted six times. In 1956, the top five batters in the American League order — Harvey Kuenn, Nellie Fox, Williams, Mantle and Yogi Berra — never got replaced. And it went on like that. Mays routinely went the distance in the 1950s and early 60s. Why the hell would you take him out?

So when Tuesday rolls along, enjoy those at-bats for Ichiro and Albert Pujols and the other modern-day stars. They won’t be around long. Catch a brief glimpse of those pitchers as they parade in and out, until it’s the top of the eighth and oh my God, we’re down to one reliever! And remember, if the National League gets the home-field advantage in this year’s World Series, it just might be because Brad Hawpe ‘s pop fly off Andrew Bailey caused some confusion between Aaron Hill and Jason Bartlett, the ball fell in safely, and by the time Ben Zobrist raced to the scene, Freddy Sanchez had scored all the way from first.

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Who came up with the notion that broadcasters, following an ages-old superstition, are not allowed to say “no-hitter” until it’s in the books? It’s not only a good way to mislead the public, it’s not a tradition at all. Not if you believe in the legend of Vin Scully.

When Sandy Koufax pitched his perfect game against the Cubs in 1965 at Dodger Stadium, this was Scully’s call as the ninth inning began:

“Three times in his sensational career has Sandy Koufax walked out to the mound to pitch a fateful ninth where he turned in a no-hitter. But tonight, September the ninth, Nineteen Hundred and Sixty-Five, he made the toughest walk of his career, I’m sure, because through eight innings he has pitched a perfect game.”

In Curt Smith’s recently published biography, “Pull Up a Chair,” Scully recalls that as he called the middle innings of Don Larsen‘s perfect game in the 1956 World Series for NBC television, he honored the superstition upheld by the likes of Mel Allen and Red Barber. “Today, I would have started in the seventh inning: ‘Hey, call your friends, this guy’s pitching a perfect game,'” Scully says in the book. “But in those days, it was not done. I’d do it differently now.”

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We’ve been hearing for weeks about the stunning development of the Warriors’ Anthony Randolph, in both physical stature and performance. Check out Kevin Arnovitz’ take on TrueHoop (great basketball site) from the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas:

“Anthony Randolph should have a Summer League exemption. It’s really not even fair to the rest of the competition: 24 points on 10-of-13 from the field, 11 boards, five blocks. We saw him finish with his right, run the break in transition coast to coast, post, shoot from the perimeter. It was the full Randolph canvas on Saturday, and he’s far and away the best talent here over the first two days.”

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Soccer note: In the wake of a 3-Dot Lounge item lamenting the fact that we won’t get Chelsea at Stanford Stadium during the upcoming “World Football Challenge” (it will be Inter Milan against Club America on July 19), reader Tom Nolan notes:

“As far as pre-season friendlies go, this won’t be bad. Club America is one of the two most popular teams in Mexico and is usually interesting. Inter has Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who scored one of the best goals ever (it’s on YouTube); Maicon (Brazil’s best